A Long Stretch of the Imagination
by greyslostwho
Summary: She's been thinking things over, and drawing some conclusions... BB Oneshot, post CMITML. Cos everybody else is doing it... R&R! *****SPOILERS*****


**A/N: Due to a bit of a shitty week, I didn't think I was capable of writing the bucket loads of angst I want to with respect to Booth's father and THAT revelation. So I jumped on the bandwagon at a slightly different angle for now, and took the fluffy route...**

It was three weeks since the events of Jared Booth's return, and Brennan and Booth had only grown closer. There were things he had shared with his partner, things that she would never have guessed in her wildest, saddest dreams, that he had never shared with a single soul, not his mother, not Jared, not even Cam. And in return she had told him things about her time in the foster system, things she'd never planned on breathing a word about, things that made his stomach turn and his heart thud in rage that anyone had laid a finger on his Bones...

But there was one thing Jared had said, although she had dismissed everything he had told her, that still lingered in her mind. _ I bet Seeley never took that risk... _

She'd thought about it long and hard, weighed up the evidence and come to the following conclusions:

1) Seeley Booth hadn't ever intiated a kiss with her because he didn't want to.  
2) Seeley Booth hadn't ever initiated a kiss with her because he thought she didn't want to.  
3) Seeley Booth hadn't ever initiated a kiss with her because he was waiting for the right moment...

_Everything happens eventually..._

It was something she had never even considered before, but all of a sudden all this reasoning, however scientific she made it, was tying her stomach up in knots. The thought of that Christmas kiss, that farce, almost made her heart flip, but to imagine the real thing... she had to stop herself short, redrawing the line in the sand she had just mentally crossed. The line she was obliviously happy standing on the other side of...

But it was as if the line had turned itself into a solid glass wall the moment she crossed it. She could she the Temperance Brennan she had been on the other side, blissfully unaware of the extent of her feelings towards her partner, with only slight twinges of feeling she could make excuses for, put down to the close friendship they shared... But she couldn't get back over there. She'd had a revelation, and there was no going back. She was falling, had quite possibly fallen for Seeley Booth...

Oh, crap.

Guy hugs. Jasper and Brainy Smurf. At her father's trial, the look in his eyes. That feeling of total emptiness, blankness, when she thought he was dead. Booth jumping in the way of that bullet at that karaoke bar on the worst night of her letter she wrote when she thought she was going to die at the hands of the Gravedigger...

She hadn't weighed up all that evidence for a long time, but now she had, there was one other conclusion she could draw:

Seeley Booth felt the same way about her as she did about him.

But he was never going to take the risk and do anything about it.

* * *

He opened the door, smiling. She was carrying Wong Foos and a bottle of wine, and she had a bemused smile on her face that made his heart flip.

"A bit of a role reversal, huh, Bones?" he asked as she opened the door. She said nothing, walked through and put the takeout and wine on the table. Then she turned to him.

"When Jared was here, I was here... he... he said some things about you..."  
Anger, bubbling in his veins. "I. don't. want to talk about him again, Bones."  
"Well, everything he said was wrong... except this one thing... and I just... I was doing some thinking Booth, and I weighed up all the evidence and came to a conclusion and decided on the course of action, and there was only one thing I could bear to do..."  
And she leant forward and kissed him on the lips, gently at first, then letting her mouth open, clutching at the lapels of his jackets and pulling him towards her a little bit, tugging gently at his bottom lip with her teeth and moaning a little when he brought his arms around her and pulled her body flush against him.

Slowly, and with self control she didn't know she possessed, she pulled away from his mouth and looked down, but made no move to leave his arms.

"Bones?" he whispered, "What was that for?"  
She smiled to herself, still looking down, fascinated by the buttons on his shirt all of a sudden. "Jared kissed me... and asked me if you'd ever taken that risk. At the time I thought nothing of it... but then I realised some things, and I decided that if you were never going to... I was going to take that risk for you."  
He hooked a finger under her chin and lifted her face up so her eyes met his.

"Thank you." he smiled, "I guess I have to thank Jared for something... even if the bastard did kiss you..."  
She laughed a little bit and he'd never noticed quite how adorable she was before. "It... it wasn't as good... as good as you... by a long stretch of the imagination."  
Wow. She was ego-boosting too now, as well as giggling and cuddling, was she?  
He didn't need to respond, just leant in to kiss her again, this time more forceful, more passionate, his tongue dancing with hers, shivering as she ran her tongue across his teeth.  
He had to pull back, breathless. They leant their foreheads together as they gulped mouthfuls of oxygen.  
"I would have taken the risk eventually, Bones... and sooner than I thought, I think..."  
"It doesn't matter now." she murmured. "Booth, I-"  
"Shhhh, Bones. Things are going to change from here. Everything will be different, but we'll still be the same people, in the end, and we can take things as slowly as you need, and oneday we'll say these things to each other but for now I don't want you to run away and-"  
She cut him off with lips to his, bringing her arms around his neck. "I'm not going anywhere..." she whispered, and drew even closer still, kissing him with a recklessness neither of them had previously known she possessed, and they staggered into Booth's bedroom, leaving the Wong Foos and the wine forgotten.

**A/N 2: I go no further, but I'm sure your imaginations do!!! Not my best, I don't think, but please leave a review with the shiny new review button!!!!**


End file.
